my granola

claire's granola

I am a  type 1 diabetic and require insulin to live.

My days are spent monitoring my blood sugars at least 8 times a day and carefully counting and measuring my food so I can adjust my insulin to mimic what my body would need if I were normal.

Foods like granola are very tricky. They are usually packed with sweet and sticky and chewy with little nuggets of even sweeter and stickier. Granola tastes great but I have avoided the "regular" kind for a long long time thinking I couldn't ever get my insulin needs to match up with it.

The raw way of eating has allowed my food choices to include things I had previously excluded. Eating raw I can tolerate carbohydrates much more efficiently than before. I need less insulin, which creates a smaller margin of error. That is a good thing. I find myself eating raw desserts and other sweet treats with the confidence that I am not only eating healthy, but I am also giving my whole digestive and endocrine system a break so I don't have to fight as hard. Eating sweet things. I think that is really cool for a diabetic.

In my epicurean adventures with raw foods, I tried making a granola recipe that turned out really well. It tastes sweet but not too sweet, and has a hint of salty. It is crunchy and chewy. It is also raw so I can eat it and deal with my insulin needs easier- much easier than if I ate conventional granola.

What I like about this recipe  is that it is complex, like most, but it is deeper than most. I think adding in coconut oil brings to it a richness that I don't find in others I have tried. 

Here goes:

Mix together in these amounts:

2 cups soaked almonds

1 cup soaked sunflower seeds

1 cup soaked buckwheat ( keep it to 30 minutes and rinse well!)

1 cup coconut shreds

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

2 tsp vanilla powder

1/4 cup raw honey

1/2 cup raw agave

all ingredients should be raw and organic if you can manage it.

dehydrate at 108 degrees at least 12 hours but more like 18 for crunchy. I start it on teflex and then flip it over 12 hours into it.

little beds

I spent the morning thinking and plotting my desires of growing my own produce. I recently moved- well 9 months now, but I have yet to be in my new house through all the seasons so it still feels new to me. 

In my old house, I had a large raised bed in which I practiced square foot gardening. I also had a vertical gardening apparatus to allow for climbing fruits and veggies like cucumbers, summer squashes, or even some butternuts. So long, awesome garden. hello new house I don't know!

I put in a new set of garden raised boxes, with highest hopes of creating a year-round haven of produce. Little did I know- or think of, was that in the winter the boxes would be in shadow almost all day. I needed a new plan.

After pick axing- yes, me doing this, I removed two hedge-like pomegranate (ornamental) bushes and cleared a spot for a new box to catch some winter sun and allow for some greens to grow. Alas, as the day went by, I again saw that it too would be in shadow much of the day. Silly me.

I was a little tired and upset by then.

Finally I found a sunny spot that is sunny all day. 

End of this story is that I transplanted some perennials and now have 3 very neat rows of kale, lettuce and tomatoes that will hopefully sprout in a few days and bring me joy as I nurture the little plants. Then I will pick them and make yummy meals and snacks with them.

I feel a little foolish, but it was great to be outside all day regardless, instead of sitting inside at my computer or TV.

time to trust myself

It's been a while now of making my tried and true recipes, perfecting them, and having predictable results.About once or twice a week I have a couple hours when I get all my nuts and seeds soaked, and assemble the breads and crackers to be eaten in the next few days. 

I love it.

Loading the Excalibur trays and hearing the hum of air moving through makes my mouth water.  Oh if it didn't take 12 hours or more!!! But so worth it. 

I am making double batches of many things now to save time.- Ani's Black Sesame bread is one of those recipes. If I don't eat it all I am giving it to friends and family to test out and sample. It's fun. I love to see their reactions to a Raw treat. 

My cashew lemon cookies are now a staple in m daughter's lunch box, and I make them bite size so she can share with her friends with a lot to go around.

So today I decided to try out a recipe that incorporates a family cookie recipe from my Czech roots, only a Raw version of it.

Here goes:

Claire's Czech Cookies

1 cup almond pulp from a batch of milk saved for later use

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

1/4 tsp cloves

about 4-5 large dates, soaked to get soft and paste like

pinch salt

process together to make a paste

then add 2-3 T of agave nectar (raw)

spread out on teflex and either cut shapes or make simple lines to break for later.

dehydrate 108 degrees until mostly dry but still pliable.

these are awesome with a cup of tea.

my new favorite meal

I had the pleasure of eating at Cafe Gratitude today for lunch with a dear friend. I was looking forward to eating there for weeks. When I got to the counter to order I blanked. Couldn't remember what to get. What's my favorite? I love the pizza. But I can make that. I love the nachos. I love the basic salad.
I wound up ordering the nachos to go and ate the cafe salad there at lunch. The Tahini dressing is what makes this a truly spectacular salad.  Luckily, the recipe is in their cookbook and so what do I do? I make it at home for dinner and eat another huge salad with it. - Minus the Tamari almonds, Brazil nut topping and general awesomeness that they always add in. I think that's why I don't even blink at paying what I do for their food. It's that good.
I like that I have the ingredients now at home where I can whip up a recipe, so I can re-live the moment. Again and again. And then tomorrow. And then the day after.

Yep , new favorite.
I Am Grateful: Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude

my go-to places

I have a few sites that I refer to multiple times a day. Whether it's for a recipe or if I have a question. I can usually find what I am looking for- and often find even more ideas!

Websites:
http://www.goneraw.com/
http://www.giveittomeraw.com/

I also am on twitter a lot. I follow a few raw people. My absolute favorite is Sarma Melingalis. She is very real, and is incredible talented with raw food. her posts are very sane and are a good reminder that we are real people who eat raw food for lots of reasons.

I like to eat raw because:
I feel better
I have more energy
I have better sleep
My blood sugars are more stable
I 'eliminate ' effortlessly
I love to cook/assemble
my skin is better
I want to live a long time

kale chips

I inhale these. 

They are the bread and butter of raw snacks.

To make these you really need an Excalibur dehydrator. I had one of the round plastic kind when I first started raw a couple years ago, and it just can't compete with the Excalibur. First off, the temps stay controlled from top to bottom, and when I have the dehydrator fully loaded and my hear is set on all me recipes drying perfectly, I like knowing temps are consistent. The round one (I read) is not nearly as efficient or controlled, and when we go through all the work of soaking and drying, we want  a good end result right?

My recipe for kale chips is the standard one, although I don't really even use measuring spoons anymore. I eyeball it but then, I've seen Martha Stewart eyeball stuff on tv so I don't feel so bad! In fact, it's like a right of passage. I just know instinctively and I have made this enough times to know how much of what to use.

I use:

• 1-2 bunches of kale torn into palm sized pieces and remove thick stem. (use enough so that each piece gets a good coating)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 tsp raw agave
• 1 t nutritional yeast
• juice from a lemon or about 2T
• 1 tsp himalayan salt
• 1 cup soaked raw cashews ( at least 3 hours)

Using the S blade, process in food processor for about a minute. 

Toss mixture with kale in a big bowl and coat evenly. Put kale on trays and dehydrate at 115 degrees for at least 6 hours. Overnight is best. The longer the crisper! 

Keep in an airtight container if you don't eat them all as soon as they are done...

From a mom's perspective, and a wife as well! I can tell you the smell alone drives my family crazy nuts- they get so excited and want to eat them all. It can be first thing in the morning and my 8 year old would rather eat kale chips than her pancakes. Cool huh.

now for the links if you want to shop....

Raw Coco-Lemon Drops and Grateful for Graitude

I am lucky to live in the Bay Area of California, and I can drive to a Cafe Gratitude in about 15 minutes, but for many of you, or most of you, this cookbook is the closest you will get to trying their incredible food. I have made over half of the recipes in both cookbooks and I haven't found anything I don't care for yet. 

In fact, because of these cookbooks, I am in love with so much of what I eat and can't wait until the next meal time so I can eat something great.

I love lemon cookies, so when I saw this recipe I had to try it. It is out of Cafe Gratitude's  "Sweet Gratitude" cookbook. 

Here's a picture of the batch in the dehydrator.

They look the same coming out too. Not much to look at but the flavor in intense! I made the size about silver dollar size, and the recipe yielded 48 cookies. That's twice what the book said. I guess I made them little.

I have these up on my etsy site and have had orders already. So cool.


next up will be a review of my famous Cheesy Kale Chips. (but SO not really cheese)

here's link to the cookbooks. I treasure mine.